Russia (bbabo.net), - Thirty-three authentic exhibits from the State Memorial Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad rediscover the harsh pages of the military history of the city on the Neva.

Thanks to the exhibition "Symbols of the Besieged Leningrad", visitors to the Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War in Minsk will be able to mentally go through at least a piece of that terrible path that fell to the lot of the blockade and the defenders of the city. For almost 900 days, from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944, Leningrad lived and fought in the blockade ring. Survived and won. The memory of the heroic defense of Leningrad today is carefully preserved by Belarusians and Russians.

The hall of memory is crowded. Veterans of the Great Patriotic War, former siege survivors of Leningrad, representatives of public organizations came to the opening of the exhibition at the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War. Siege veterans, despite their venerable age, are still in the ranks. They willingly tell the assembled youth what they had to go through in order to survive in that terrible time. On the faces of the cadets, students of Minsk universities, there is not only sympathy and bitterness, but also pride in grandfathers and great-grandfathers.

Belarusians who defended the great city on the Neva lie in the Leningrad land

The exhibition became a visual continuation of the conversation of the President of Belarus on the preservation of historical memory. The event was attended by Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Igor Petrishenko, State Secretary of the Union State Dmitry Mezentsev, Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov, who arrived in Minsk on a working visit, Russian Ambassador to Belarus Boris Gryzlov.

At the opening of the exposition, Alexander Beglov conveyed the best wishes of the President of Russia to the veterans of the blockade and presented congratulatory letters and commemorative medals "Candle of Memory" to the chairman of the Minsk city public organization "Defenders and residents of besieged Leningrad" Vitaly Vasilyev and the chairman of the board of the public association "Belarusian Union of Leningrad Siege" Maria Yagodnitsyna.

- We remember everyone, - said Alexander Beglov. - Belarusians also lie in the Leningrad land, who defended the great city on the Neva. And in the same way, Leningraders fought on all fronts, liberated Minsk, the hero city, all of Belarus.

The Governor of St. Petersburg emphasized the importance of the fact that even decades after the Great Victory, our peoples have retained the most important thing - their brotherhood, the brotherhood of two great peoples: "The task today is to preserve the memory of those who gave their lives so that we could speak mother tongue, raise children and live in independent countries."

Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Igor Petrishenko conveyed a deep bow to the unconquered city on the Neva and its defenders: “On the memorable days when we celebrated the 78th anniversary of the sad and heroic date of lifting the blockade of Leningrad, I think: if all the Soviet people had not risen to defend their Fatherland in 1941, there would not have been that partisan resistance, there would have been no Great Victory. Largely thanks to the unbending will of the Soviet people and dear Leningraders, who withstood, withstood almost 900 days, managed to crush the enemy. The memory of these people should forever remain in our hearts."

The State Secretary of the Union State Dmitry Mezentsev spoke about the importance of patriotic education of youth during the opening of the exhibition. He said that a center for patriotic education would soon be formed on the basis of the Kobrin fortification in the Brest Fortress. Discussion of this project of the ministries of defense and ministries of culture of the two countries is nearing completion. "To implement it, not only large financial costs are ahead, but a lot of educational work in both countries," Dmitry Mezentsev stressed.

In the Year of Historical Memory in Belarus, the Standing Committee of the Union State envisages a number of thematic projects. This year, by June 22, the next edition is being prepared for the release, dedicated to the exposition of the Museum of Victory on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow, the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War in Minsk and the Memorial Complex "Brest Hero Fortress".

Gorgoniya Yarzhembitskaya and Maria Yagodnitsyna, survivors of the besieged Leningrad, came to the exhibition with special feelings. Decades after those tragic events, women, remembering their blockade childhood, still experience pain and bitterness.

“Although we live in Minsk, we are still Leningraders,” says Gorgoniya Dmitrievna, secretary of the Belarusian Union of Leningrad Siegemen. - We withstood that terrible time in order to tell the youth today about the feat of the Soviet people during the war years.

DIRECT SPEECH

Dmitry Mezentsev, State Secretary of the Union State:- Today, lines of a single history are being written in Minsk: the history of the Victory, respect for a great feat. This is significant insofar as veterans will find a response in the hearts of young people, insofar as those who are 15, 20, 25 years old today are ready to hear what has been done and to shift the test of many years of war onto themselves, asking themselves: "Could I do in the same way, would he not have been afraid then and how would he have looked into the eyes of his comrades if he hadn’t had the strength to be honest and courageous? Veterans have already passed this exam. Today we have to take an exam on respect for a heroic deed, the ability to open the pages of that war and shift this memory to the present day, realizing how cruel today is the pressure on Belarussia from the West, which sees itself as democratic, sincere and fair. Is it so? Unfortunately, we have already received the answer to this question.

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